Useful high dye yield (HDY) couplers have been disclosed by Mooberry and Singer in U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,884. Such couplers react with oxidized color developer to form one dye and in doing so release a precursor of a second dye. It has been found, however, that couplers of this type, containing a coupler portion capable of forming a yellow dye upon coupling with oxidized developer, are not always satisfactory from the standpoint of reactivity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,752 discloses that the coupling efficiency of pivaloylacetanilide types of yellow couplers can be improved by providing an aryloxy coupling-off group in which a polarizable carbonyl, sulfonyl, or phosphonyl group is attached to the phenyl ring at the ortho position. Small chain length sulfonamido groups such as methylsulfonamido are exemplified. The use of hydrophilic groups which affect the properties of couplers containing timing groups is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,248,962, 4,861,701, 4,409,323, 5,034,311, and 5,055,385. However, there is no suggestion in the art of the particular advantages to be obtained from the use of a timing group having a substituent containing a sulfonamidoaryl or sulfamoylaryl portion in conjunction with a high dye-yield coupler.
It is a problem to be solved to provide a photographic element, coupler, emulsion and imaging process that provide a yellow dye forming high dye-yield coupler which has improved reactivity and photographic properties.